Bono to leave ONE Campaign board at end of the year

After 20 years, Irish singer Bono has finally found what he’s looking for: a new generation of advocates to take up the cause. The lead singer of rock band U2 and global activist announced Tuesday that at the end of this year he will step down from the board of ONE Campaign, the anti-poverty advocacy campaign he co-founded almost two decades ago. “I am humbled to recognize that ONE's most powerful lobbyists are now the young activists in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Africa holding power to account every day and outside of the spotlight, not Irish rock stars,” Bono said in a statement shared with Devex. ONE President Tom Hart told Devex that as the organization prepares to celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2024, Bono felt that was an appropriate moment to end his board service and “create space for others.” “This was never meant to just be about him, and it hasn’t been,” Hart said. Hart said that Bono will “always be our co-founder” and will remain a funder and supporter. “He’s not stepping away from activism,” Hart said. Based in Washington, D.C., ONE combines two nonprofit organizations. The ONE Campaign raises public awareness of issues related to global poverty and health, while ONE Action engages in direct lobbying. Members of ONE’s board include former Meta Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, Nigerian billionaire and philanthropist Aliko Dangote, and former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron. Hart said the organization did not anticipate any other changes at the board level, which does not have a set number of members, and he said there were no immediate plans to replace Bono. “There isn’t a Bono seat, so to speak,” Hart said. For its part, ONE will walk on with or without its longtime figurehead on the board. This week, the organization is in the middle of a high-stakes push to reform the World Bank during the institution’s frenzied Spring Meetings and leadership transition. ONE and other advocacy groups are pushing the bank to use its capital more aggressively in the face of multiple crises facing people living in poverty around the world. This year ONE also has its eyes on securing a bipartisan congressional reauthorization for PEPFAR, the U.S. global AIDS initiative, and supporting increased agricultural production in Africa to fight food insecurity, Hart said. “I do think that there’s a new generation of advocates,” Hart said. “They are as impatient and educated and active as advocates a generation ago, but they are bringing in new ideas, new techniques from social media — the kind of networking that we would not have imagined 20 years ago,” he said. They’re ONE, but they’re not the same.